Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

Somehow, this week became granola bar week and I'm definitely ok with that.  I made granola bars yesterday from the New York Times that were great, but they had the consistency of a crunchy Nature Valley Bar which is a little too crunchy for a toddler.  Today, I decided to try an attempt at a chewier granola bar to please his Majesty (a 2 year old)

Chocolate Chip Oat Bars
1 1/4 cup oats (old fashioned)
1/3 cup of oat flour (can make in a blender or food processor)
1/3 cup of flax seed
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup (or both if you happen to run out of honey)
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease an 8x8 glass pan with vegetable oil (or another neutral oil) and make sure that surface is well covered.

Place oats, oat flour, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl and mix

Place coconut oil, honey and peanut butter in a small saucepan and cook until the coconut oil is melted.  Whisk to incorporate the peanut butter until it's a smooth mixture.

Pour the peanut butter mixture over the oats and stir together.  Let this cool for a few minutes and then stir in the chocolate chips.  

Pour this mixture into your heavily greased 8x8 pan and press the mixture down so that it is even.

Bake for 25 minutes

Let cool for as long as you can.  I cut right into these about 5 minutes after they came out of the oven, but you should let them cool so that they solidify to each other and become friends.  I did cut them right away to make it easy to break apart later.  After thoroughly cooling they will still be a little crumbly, but they are still tasty!